


Flayed Men and Wolf Women

by DragonSlayer2526



Series: 4 Part Gift series [2]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Blood and Injury, F/M, Female Friendship, Isolde is sassy and smart ass, Mystery Character(s), Older Man/Younger Woman, Royce meets his match in Isolde, Strong Female Characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-23
Updated: 2017-08-23
Packaged: 2018-12-18 21:57:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11883636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonSlayer2526/pseuds/DragonSlayer2526
Summary: A mysterious woman with a black wolf appeared suddenly in front of the gates of Dreadfort, unconscious and wounded and it's up to Royce to find out just who this woman is and why she suddenly appeared...Sansa gets a new female friend in this mysterious woman.





	1. First Meeting

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BlueEyesBlueSkies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueEyesBlueSkies/gifts).



> Another gift for BlueEyesBlueSkies, for Possession: Extended Story (should read that story as well, it's fantastic)...our original characters are the main focus of this one shot with some Roose/Sansa thrown in as an extra bonus.
> 
> Isolde is another original character of mine and she's from my original kingdom/Island for Game of Thrones along with Seren and Rayne...still working on that story and the only clue you get to her tie in with another character of mine is the song she sings. But you can view this an AU to that story.

There was an uproar early in the morning because in the faint glow of early morning the sentries that were posted in the battlements of Winterfell saw an unconscious figure in front of the gates. What had caught their attention was a flash of color, a flash of red and they had looked down to see what it was, and that when they saw the figure.

And the figure was a woman.

And she wasn't alone, standing protectively above her was a adult black wolf which stood about the height of a man's waist. So it was quite big, bigger than the wolves found around her but not as as big as a Dire Wolf. While it wasn't the size of an adult Dire Wolf, it was just as protective and aggressive as a bitch guarding her pup.

So here was King Roose Bolton and Royce, standing above the unconscious woman staring down at her. This woman dressed in a form fitted dress with a fur cloak wrapped around her, she looked to be from the North but there was a hint of foreigner in her features as well and the wound on her side told that she had been injured sometime during her travel and had left outside their gates like an unwanted babe.

"What should we do with her?" Royce broke the silence by asking.

"Take her inside, we'll have Maester Qyburn treat her wound." Roose said. "But when she wakes up, I want you to question her and keep my wife away from her until we know who she is and where she is from."

Royce just nodded his head and bent over to pick up the woman, where he noticed two things: one she was tall and two she was very beautiful. The wolf didn't growl or bear its teeth as Royce picked up the woman, it just watched him with its golden eyes. He carried the unconscious woman inside the Keep while the wolf trailed after him, looking up at the woman in his arms.

The Queen was going to love this animal, Royce knew that for certain.

\---------------

The woman had woken up a few hours go but Maester Qyburn refused anyone from seeing her just yet, saying that they had no idea where she was from or even if she knew their tongue.

The black wolf was in the room with her, it seemed well-behaved since it allowed the Maester to clean and bandaged her wounds.

And the question if she knew their tongue was answered when Royce heard singing coming from her chambers, the window having been left open so she could get some fresh air.

 **" _The Dornishman's wife was as fair as the sun,_ _and her kisses were warmer than spring._ _But the Dornishman's blade was made of black steel,_ _and its kiss was a terrible thing._ _The Dornishman's wife would sing as she bathed,_ _in a voice that was sweet as a peach,_ _But the Dornishman's blade had a song of its own,_ _and a bite sharp and cold as a leech."_** The woman sang, she sang just as well and beautifully as the Queen. _ **"**_ ** _As he lay on the ground with the darkness around,_ _and the taste of his blood on his tongue,_ _His brothers knelt by him and prayed him a prayer,_ _and he smiled and he laughed and he sung, "_ _Brothers, oh brothers, my days here are done,_ _the Dornishman's taken my life,_ _But what does it matter, for all men must die,_ _and I've tasted the Dornishman's wife!"_."**

She must really like that song because that was the third time he had heard her sing that song, which was surprising because that wasn't a song that a high born lady would sing. Royce started to head towards her chambers, walking up the flight of stairs.

"You seem to like that song, my lady." The Maester's voice said as he walked into her chambers.

The animal raised its head to look at him before it laid it back down on the second pillow next to her.

The woman glanced at him before she looked away, "Where am I?" She had never spoken to him before, every time he tried to talk to her she either ignored him or just stared at him and that was including the first two times she had sang so he was surprised that she even spoke to him but he hid it well.

"You are in Winterfell, my lady." The man said. "The sentries found you outside, unconscious, alone and bleeding."

The woman frowned at that, so much for loyal cousin...she was going to kill Aeron the next time she saw him.

Slowly and painfully, dame what their teachings had told them about not harming family...or killing them.

He deserved it because he left her outside a Keep in an unknown land.

"What's your name, my lady?"

"...Isolde."

"No family name?"

She doesn't answer that question, Isolde just fixed him with a blank golden stare.

"I am Maester Qyburn." The man said with a bow, not seeming bothered by her odd eye color. "What is your wolf's name?"

"Thank you for treating my wound, Maester." Isolde patted the wolf. "And this is Arik, my trust friend and companion." Said animal raised his head to look at her before he laid back down with a groan.

The man smiled faintly at her as he said, "Don't thank me just yet, my dear." And with that, he opened the door and ushered another man in. Isolde eyed the man with wariness as he returned the favor.

The wolf cracked open one eye and watched the man.

The young woman was a beautiful thing, almost as beautiful as His Queen but there was something about this woman that made her different from his Queen and Royce couldn't put his finger on it. She had an exquisite, delicate, oval-shaped face with a definitive jaw line and accentuated cheekbones. Her eyes were disturbing, with an exotic slant. Such vibrant gold eyes in that bronze colored face, so golden and clear, just like topaz. Her lips were soft and full and the nose straight and slender. A thick fringe of black lashes framed those extraordinary eyes, while black brows arched gently above them. Her hair was black, too, in loose little waves surrounding her face, giving her bronze skin a glow like polished bronze. 

She and the Queen looked to be around the same age.

Royce stopped next to her bed and crossed his arms over his chest, "Who and where are you from?"

The woman blinked her gold eyes lazily before she said, "I am Isolde and this is Arik." She motioned towards the wolf. "...And as for where I am from, I am from a place that's so far away it's not even on the map."

The man frowned at her when she said that, "Really?" He and every man in this keep were suspicious of this woman,

Instead of answering him, Isolde pushed the furs off and stood up naked as her name day and walked towards the window to look out. She had an lithe, firm build yet didn't lack feminine curves from what Royce could see, she had a well-defined butt and long, muscularly-toned, and shapely legs. He really did try hard not to stare but it was hard, literally, since she didn't seem at all bothered to be naked in front of two male strangers.

The animal let out what to Royce sounded like an amused snort as he watched the man stare at the woman as if he had never seen a naked woman before.

"I am from a place of snow and ice that covers my land year around." Isolde murmured as she watched a man walk with a red haired woman below her window. "I am from a place where the wolves outnumber the humans and are not hunted, I am from a place where the first wolves were created before they traveled into different lands."

She tilted her head to the side as she watched the woman, no one had that color hair back home. They all had black hair though there was a babe born with either brown or blonde hair but that's mostly because one of their parents had that coloring and the babe had decided to come out that way. Isolde turned to face the man, smiling when she noticed that he was making an attempt to not stare, and failing terribly at it.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Royce...and you already met Maester Qyburn."

"Prisoner or guest?" Isolde asked.

"...Depends."

"On?"

"If you are a danger to the Queen."

Isolde smiled at that as she looked out the window once more, "I am no danger to other women, ser. Nor am I a danger to you...I was just passing through when I was attacked by the ironborn led by a man named Euron Greyjoy."

"Oh? Why would they attack you?"

Again no answer at first, she seemed to do that whenever he asked a too personal question.

"Probably thought I was an easy target..." Isolde mused softly to herself.

Royce silently watched the naked woman as she watched whatever it was that had caught her attention as the Maester moved around in the background until he placed a dress similar to the one that she had been wearing down.

"The wound wasn't terrible, my lady but try not to put too much strain on it." Qyburn said.

Isolde looked at him then looked down at herself before she looked back at him and smirked, "What's wrong with how I am now?"

"Nothing, my lady, but you will distract the men." 

The woman did a throaty chuckle that caused Royce to harden against his will before she turned around and reached for the dress then she started to put it on, it wasn't like the dresses that the women wore here. It hugged her curves just right, flaring out at the waist and it had two side silts that clearly told those around her that she wasn't wearing any small clothes. She braided her long, wavy, lush and full black hair back into partial braids which consisted of seven small braids braided into one and then four larger braids that was braided into one then the smaller braids were tied to the larger braid and held together by metal hair cuffs that had wolf design carved onto them.

"I take it your going to be my assigned guard until I prove that I am harmless to you?"

Royce eyed her for a few beats before he nodded and said, "Yes..."

Isolde smirked in a sultry manner at him and said, "I could have had worse guards, at least you're nice to look at..."

The man tensed up at that, was she trying to get information by seducing him? It sounded like something he would do. He watched as Isolde walked over to him before she wrapped an arm around his and said, "I want to take a look around...I won't put too much strain, Maester." She added the last part with a glance at the Maester who nodded. Arik jumped off the bed and padded over to the two, he walked around them before he stopped next to Isolde who smiled fondly down at the animal.

"Alright but don't try anything or else you won't like what will happen to you." Royce threatened as he led the woman out of her chambers with the wolf trailing behind them.

"Sounds like a promise...I like being tied up." Isolde purred out with a saucy smile.

This woman was nothing like the women here....

\---------------------------------------

Isolde was fascinated by Dreadfort, it was a very impressive keep though it was intimidating as well. She was no longer walking next to Royce but he was walking just behind her as the woman explored the keep with a childlike wonder. The horses didn't seem to like her since they freaked out as soon as she got near their stables but Isolde just walked by without even looking at them a second time.

Arik kept his distance from the noisy animals after he looked at them and gave them a dignified sniff.

The woman wore a cloak with black foxes fur on the shoulders as well as inside the cloak, her cloak had been damaged and would need to be fixed. That cloak was a spare of Royce's, he didn't want his charge getting ill so he had given it to her.

Isolde started to hum a familiar tune that caused Royce to groan and ask, "Don't you know any other songs?"

"Mmm, yes I do." 

"Sing that instead." Royce said.

"Mmm, don't want to." Isolde said before she started to sing that song again to which Royce had tried to grab her but the woman was surprising quick and nimble as she darted away from that man, laughing.

The woman raced away with the man hot on her heels, her long black hair and cloak flying behind her like banner as she ran. She led him into the Godswood and would have made it passed the tree if Royce hadn't put on a surprising burst of speed and tackled the woman, they fell to the soft ground and rolled until Isolde was below him with Royce straddling her.

Isolde was laughing hard with her cheeks flushed and he was laughing right along with her until Royce seemed to remember that he's supposed to be guarding her, not lowering his guard around her. She felt the man tense up and then he stood up, Isolde stood up as well and dusted herself off with an air of a prim noble lady. Arik appeared just behind them, watching them with a curious air about him.

"You will trust me with your life, Royce...one day soon."

And with that she turned and walked away with her wolf, leaving Royce hurrying to catch up to her and wondering what she had meant by that.


	2. Second Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Royce meets with Isolde and goes with her to the Godswood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Isolde can be very sensitive of the moods around her and therefore act accordingly, if she senses that people are uncomfortable and wary of her she'll then do what she can to put them at ease.
> 
> I tried to explain her people's belief and religion, gah I hope it makes sense and doesn't confuse you, my lovely readers!

When Isolde saw Royce the next day, he was on guard which was amusing really for a man to be on guard around a woman but she understood why he seemed to wary of her and why he didn't want to lower his guard around her too much.

She was nothing like the women here, she made him nervous.

Isolde wasn't docile or meek, or even playfully so. She had no problem telling a man that she was interested in him and going in for the chase but Royce seemed be on guard with her now, probably because he knew nothing about her and she had told him nothing.

How could she explain her people? Her cultural? It would appear so foreign to him that it would probably hurt his brain trying to understand it.

Where she was from, it common to see a woman fight alongside a man.

So it was a cultural shock to her when she first arrived here, Isolde had known how Westeros men valued their women, treating them as objects or possessions. She remembered seeing some men back at the town treating their women. Treating like slaves or breeding mares, to was sickening to watch them do so, and she never spoke to those men. Isolde was worried that she would have fight them if she did. The men of Westeros simply do not treat their fairer sex better or hold them with any value. In her country women have the same rights as men though they are treated better because it is the woman that carries and brings in the next generation.

And they were ruled by the Wolf Queen who is ruled alongside by a Wolf King Consort, who holds no real power and was just a figure head. The Wolf Queen held the power and ruled over her people fairly but firmly.

"I would like to pray, Ser Royce." Isolde said softly before she turned without further warning and walked towards the Godswood, her hand fisted in the thick fur of around Arik's neck.

Royce was quick to follow her though as they made their into the Godswood and he watched as Isolde kneeled before the Godswood tree, she clasped her hands together and started to pray.

"Spirit of the wolf, You who wanders the wild lands, You who stalks in silent shadows, You who runs and leaps between the snow-covered trees." Isolde prayed her eyes were closed as she called upon the image of the wolf statue in the ice and snow covered temple back home. "Lend me your primal strength And the wisdom of your glowing eyes. Teach me to relentlessly track my desires And to stand in defense of those I love." Royce was listening to her, he knew that she was far from here but hearing her pray really brought that home. This woman was a long way from home, wherever that may be.

"Show me the hidden paths and the moonlit fields." Arik was lying at her side, ears moving as the wolf listened to her. "Fierce spirit, Walk with me in my solitude, Howl with me in my joy and Guard me as I move through this world."

The woman stood up and dusted herself off before she turned to face Royce, "I am done..." She started to walk away with her wolf at her side, after he stretched and yawned when he had stood up.

"You worship wolves?" Royce asked her as he walked next to her.

"No, wolf spirits act as messengers for prayers and guides the souls of the dead to the Wolf Goddess." Isolde explained. "It is she who we worship to." She glanced at him before she looked away. "And it is she who decides who will return as either wolf spirits or as the wolves themselves. We believe the wolves are the reincarnated forms of lost loved ones."

"Your people really do love wolves."

"Yes, it's instant death to any who should kill or harm a wolf." Isolde said. "Whenever a new baby is brought into the world, they are gifted with a wolf pup around the same age to be raised together." She smiled down at Arik fondly.

"I take it that you and Arik had been together since then?" Royce asked.

A slight nod from the woman at his side as she said, "Yes." She rubbed her gloved hands together as she walked, Arik moving to stand between the two. The wolf seemingly able to sense the awkwardness and tension between the two humans.

The woman lowered her hand and fisted the limb into the wolf's thick neck fur.

"That's the first time you have ever spoken about where you are from." Royce said. "Normally you would deflect any such questions."

"I meant it when I said that I wasn't a danger to you or your Queen." Isolde said. "So I figured that it's better if you know a little about me and where I am from, and the included my religion."

They left the Godswood side by side, Royce noticed that she kept scanning the area around her.

He knew who she was looking for.

"Ramsay isn't here."

No one knew what had happened between the two but by the next morning, Ramsay had a bandaged arm and ever since then the wolf refused to leave its companion alone no matter who the woman was with.

And the woman had become guarded around Roose's bastard, it was a shame that she had to met Ramsay Snow first before she even got to met his father or stepmother but Isolde had survived her first encounter with the deranged Bolton Bastard with the help of her ever present wolf.

"We kill people like him back home, Ser Royce." Isolde said. "Someone as sick as him is a threat to everyone, no one is safe from him." _Not even your Queen_ was implied by her tone, she didn't have to say it.

Everyone knew that but Roose wasn't able to do anything with the boy, not with had happened with Royce who was a bastard himself. Roose's bastard brother. But Isolde didn't know that, no one had told her and won't tell her until the King knows for sure that she can be trusted.

"Do you have bastards back home?"

"I _am_ a bastard, Ser Royce, but we do not treat them as you do here." Isolde said. "And I will tell you why, we are a matriarch ran land. Our women are not treated like yours, the women are treated with care and respect that is due to the ones who carry and bring the new generation into this world. Any bastard child born is treated like a true born child, we do not beat our children for something that wasn't their fault."

She stopped walking and turned to face Royce, "It takes two to commit adultery and any husband who does so against his wife is blamed. He was too weak willed to refuse the advances of a woman and a woman who seduces a husband to be unfaithful is sent to the temple to work as a Priestess for the rest of her life, and the bastard child is given to be raised by the woman whose husband that woman had seduced."

Isolde was one such child, her mother had seduced the husband of her stepmother and when the Wolf Queen had learned about it, she had a baby Isolde taken away and given to the other woman to be raised while her mother had been sent to the Temple of the Wolf Goddess to serve there for the rest of her life.

Isolde's father was punished for being weak willed, she knew that he blamed her but couldn't do anything to her. He knew the laws of their land, any who should harm a child would be fed to the wolves.

Alive and bonded, bleeding.

Their laws had kept them alive for centuries, it ensured their survival no matter how brutal said laws appeared to be to outsiders.

She was raised with those laws and remembered those laws even as she traveled into Westeros.

"All of your women think that?"

"Yes." Isolde said she looked at him. "I am not expecting you to understand us or our ways but I understand how it is to be a bastard and why you shouldn't simply let someone as sick as he is to live simply because he is your bastard son."

She was talking about Roose but she wouldn't say it to him, at least not yet. Not until he tried to harm the red haired woman that she kept getting glances of, the one that was with child. Ramsay made Isolde nervous whenever she saw how he watched the woman and he made Arik hostile, which is odd given how well tempered the wolf normally was but it was said that animals could sense the true nature of people.

Arik could sense a madness in the bastard, a twisted desire.

But Isolde would kill Ramsay even before he tried to harm the woman, she swore it by the Wolf Goddess. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The prayer that Isolde is saying is a prayer I found while looking for a wolf poem and it's called Wolf Pray, I thought it suited Isolde and her people very well. I tweaked it a little to fit the land where she is from.
> 
> I'm going to have it that where she is from, is far (far) beyond the Wall as well so she knows about the White Walkers though her own land is protected by a high ice wall as well.


	3. Third Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not much of a meeting, just Royce and Roose watching the two women chat....creepy hot men :P
> 
> I added more to it but can't think of anything, though when I do I'll add to it ^^

_**A Few Months Later...** _

It had been a few months since Isolde had been found outside the walls of Winterfell, the keep was starting to look like it had done before the ironborn tried to destroying the ancestral home of the Starks.

Isolde had been right when she had said that first day of her being in Winterfell, Royce does trust her now with his life and the lives of his King and Queen. In fact, Queen Sansa and Isolde had formed an unbreakable friendship sometime during the months that Royce had been acting as Isolde's guard, neither he or Roose knew how or when the two young women started to talk but one day they had glanced over and saw their heads put together and whispering softly before they erupted into giggles.

It was probably due to the fact that both women owned a wolf though Grey Wind was much larger than Arik but it had helped to form a bond between the two. And the animals seemed to get along pretty well as well since they were always seen together.

Trailing after the women or patrolling the area together when both women were with Royce.

Said man was an envy of all the lads to be with not just one but two beautiful ladies.

Isolde had gotten the trust of everyone when the dark haired woman had risked her life protecting their Queen when the ironborn had attacked her and Queen Sansa when they were in the Godswood. Royce had no idea where she had even kept that dagger but both he and Roose were grateful to her that she did have it. Who knew what they wanted with Sansa and it probably wasn't for noble reasons.

Grey Wind and Arik watched Isolde's back as she defended the red haired Queen. 

He still chuckled at the creative curses that Isolde had hurled at the retreating backs of the ironborn, who were carrying an injured Euron Greyjoy between them. Isolde had a fiery temper when she was pushed passed her point and the ironborn had learned that the hard way.

Isolde tolerated no man who would harm or try to rape a woman.

Or any woman who would try to harm another woman for that matter. Isolde didn't like Ramsay's woman (and she never bothered to actually remember the wenche's name either) and always made sure she was at Sansa's side whenever said woman made her appearance. Arik had, on more on one occasion to even be considered to be just an accident, charged at the woman growling in such a way that it had even surprised Roose.

The wolf had always been well tempered and mannered that such a display of aggression had seemed impossible to the animal but it drove home that Arik was still a wild animal and would respond if he felt his temporary pack was threatened.

Royce watched at Sansa and Isolde talked quietly to each other, both women had smiles on their faces as they talked in hushed tones. Their differences contrasted nicely together, Sansa was the day while Isolde was the night.

He winced at that thought, gah the women were turning him into a poet.

Or turning him into a mess of desire and need, which is what Isolde did to him sometimes. He didn't know one could die from desire but he was willing to bet that he'd be the first. Isolde had a carefree and cheerful, with a little of sassy and wittiness, attitude with a hint of seductive charm mixed in. He could tell that her bright, carefree and honest (to a certain point, she was still tight lipped about where she had came from even though she had told him some of it) personality could have her make anyone or anything into her friends.

And she could drive any man crazy with just a smile and look, Royce knew because it had almost happened to him.

"Why don't you just bed the woman and be done with it?" Roose asked suddenly from Royce's side surprising his bastard brother from his thoughts.

Royce sighed heavily and said, "I tried but she keeps finding excuses and vanishing."

"Mmm, odd normally you don't have any trouble getting a woman." Roose mused thoughtfully.

Isolde suddenly laughed uproariously at that whatever Sansa had whispered to her, causing the two men to look at them, just in time to see Isolde nearly falling off her chair as she wrapped her arms around her stomach as she laughed hard.

The two wolves, Grey Wind and Arik were lying by their respected owner's chair, looking to be asleep but the men saw that their ears would twitch and move at every sound.

"I have a feeling that she knows that which is why she's not making it easy for me..."

"Or maybe she likes being chased, she looked like someone who did the chasing."

Royce grunted at that and said, "She's both...sometimes she's chasing me until she gets distracted by your wife."

The corner of Roose's lips twitch at that and Royce gave him a half hearted annoyed glare at that. He didn't like the fact that his half brother found his pain so amusing but then again this is Roose he was talking to so of course he would. 

Sick bastard. So much for brotherly love.

Looks like Royce had met his match in a woman called Isolde....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now who wants to see Arik's point of view? I might continue that for the fourth chapter....
> 
> Royce, I am honestly surprised that you even remember her name given the fact that you couldn't remember the name of that wench :P


	4. Through a Wolf's Eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What Arik does every day from sun up to sun down....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How should I explain Arik? Mmm, he's cunning and actually has a sense of sassiness that people will notice...and he's very expressive, you can literally see what he's thinking just by looking at his face...

_**Morning** _

A beam of sun light crept along the floor of a bed chamber, slowly making its way to the slumbering large figure in front of fireplace. The beam of light finally made its way to the figure and it the eyes of the wolf who slowly woke up, blinking its golden eyes before it stood up as it stretched and yawned. Arik then padded over to the large fur covered bed and leapt onto it, nuzzling the sleeping figure until she was awake.

"G'morning, Arik..." The female yawned hugely before she sat up and stretched, the furs coming to pool around her waist to reveal something that he was sure that the male who kept sniffing around her skirts would find very interesting.

She slept without any clothes on.

Like the rest of the wolves who were lucky enough to be raised by the slightly hairless two legged creatures, Arik learned words and understood them. Much like Grey Wind.

Once he was sure that she was fully awake and wouldn't go back to sleep, which is something she had done before, the wolf turned and leapt off the bed just as a maid opened the door and the wolf slipped out of the bedchambers.

The massive animal took two steps at a time as he walked down the flight of stairs, his tail waving side to side.

But once he reached the bottom of the stairs, he froze and bared his teeth fur raising in a sure sign of aggression.

Standing before him was the deranged pup and his mate of the Alpha of this pack that took his companion and the wolf in. Arik didn't know why they were so close to her chambers and he didn't care, he'd tear out their throats if they even tried to get passed him.

They both smelled sick, it came off them in waves and it wrinkled his nose even more, exposing more of his teeth.

But the male knew better than to try to harm the mountain wolf, the last time he had tried it was something he would regret since Arik had killed two out of all his dogs that he had been foolish to set loose on the wolf.

Then Grey Wind appeared behind the two, growling as well causing the two to turn around to look at the newcomer before they slinked off into the shadows. Both wolves watched until they could no longer smell, hear or see them before the two animals calmed down and greeted each other. Rubbing against each other before they went their separate ways, Arik was heading straight the male that his companion liked and wanted as a mate.

The wolf arrived at the man's room and nosed the door open, he was alone...for once.

Arik hadn't wanted to deal with the high pitched shrieks of another female that had been frightened by the sight of a wolf, watching them.

The animal padded over to the male and rubbed against him, placing his head on his lap and releasing a heavy sigh when the man placed his hand on his head and started to stroke. This man had the same scent as the Alpha and the sick pup, they were related by blood.

The man feed Arik some dried meat before the wolf licked his hand and then left the room.

Arik left the Keep, his tail waving side to side as he walked before he stopped and looked over. Something had caught his attention...

The animal relaxed when he saw that it was the Alpha and his mate, the wolf turned and headed towards them. They were an odd pair, the female showed her teeth while the male didn't but she seemed comfortable around him and that in turn made Arik lower his guard around the man. If he meant the females no harm then the wolf wouldn't harm him.

His pup and its mate was a different matter though.

Arik licked their hands before he wandered away, he had much ground to cover before he took off with Grey Wind into the woods.

_**Afternoon** _

Arik's sides were heaving and his tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth when he and Grey Wind returned from their run, both wolves stepped through the gates and headed to the trough filled with water that was always there for them. Though before they took a drink, they'd smell it.

Who knew if the sick pair would poison their water in an attempt to kill the animals that protected the two women that they wanted to hurt.

Grey Wind's companion before she bore the Alpha's pup and Arik's companion because she wasn't afraid of them and had no problem threatening him.

Once they knew it was safe to drink, both animals started to lap up water to quench their thirst before they brushed their noses together then took off to finding their companions. 

Arik found his in the place where she has to hit a far target with small sharp sticks.

She paused when she heard a soft whine and looked over her shoulder, smiling when she saw him, "Hello, lovely boy, had a nice run with Grey Wind?" Arik liked both females voices but it was his companion's voice that he liked the best.

"C'mon, Arik, let's have a big lunch before we retire to our chambers so that I can write to my mother."

Arik knew she was talking about the female who had raised her among her own pups, the only mother that she had ever known.

The wolf trailed after his companion, heading to their chambers.

_**Evening** _

And by evening they were in their chambers, his companion had remained while Arik had left to play with Grey Wind in the courtyard. Now the massive animal was lying on the fur covered bed, his head was resting on the second pillow as the wolf slightly dozed once more.

His companion was at the desk, writing on a piece parchment.

It was one of three.

Finally his companion placed the quill down and stretched, humming before she stood up and sealed the parchments together. "Dinner, boy?" She asked as she looked at the wolf who had raised his head when she had moved.

Arik yawned his response and thumped his tail.

"Dinner is it then." She said with a laugh before she got up and opened the door to talk to someone outside.

A twitch of his nose told him it was a someone who worked.

The female closed the door and she went to sit on the bed next to Arik, stroking his sides gently as they waited for their food. After a while she started to hum and the wolf shifted until his head was on her lap, his ears focusing on her humming.

Oh yes, he liked her voice indeed. And he liked this place as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Arik is a match maker...all the mountain wolves are, noisy little beasties xD

**Author's Note:**

> Isolde is one of my most fun characters to write, oh my other characters are just as fun to write but Isolde has just this amount of sassiness to make it even more fun xD


End file.
